Numbers
by cinnamon988
Summary: The first time she set a foot on the beach, twenty-one years old Rose Tyler learned that the universe, doesn't matter which one, was a cruel place.... Obligatory post-JE oneshot


disclaimer: the usual...

a/n.: here's my obligatory post JE oneshot...

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OoOoO

The first time she set a foot on the beach, twenty-one years old Rose Tyler, a fatherless girl from a different universe learned that the universe, no matter which one, was a cruel place.

She realized that it didn't care, it just loved to play with its inhabitants' lives. And it gave them a different role each time it decided to interfere – 'sometimes you're the windshield, love, other times you're the bug', her mother used to say. She accepted it as the truth, but that didn't mean that she didn't try to rebel against it.

OoOoO

The second time around, twenty-three years old Rose Tyler, Defender of the Earth, learned that sometimes a broken heart meant a whole new beginning.

When the 'original' Doctor disappeared from her life for the second time, she raged. '_How dare you do this to me?_' she screamed into the wind. He didn't just abandon her (again). He also humiliated her –he couldn't just say that he didn't want her, no. He had to twist the knife and give her her own Doctor –the faulty copy, the innocent murderer he himself couldn't deal with--, along with some catchy phrase. She understood the words too well. '_I don't need you anymore, but hey, here's one that does, fix it, and you'll have a me_'.

She found out soon that she wasn't the only one who'd understood the message... The Not-Doctor has –soon to be Jack Noble Smith, after his favorite companions -- had realized the meaning too... then proceeded to show Rose that he really was born from rage and war and pain. His hate easily surpassed hers, and she couldn't blame him. If she felt that she was humiliated, then Jack was... she couldn't find the words to describe it. Maybe there were no words for it --his original self decided that he was wrong, trapped him in another universe, and -maybe not intentionally, but -used him to hurt the woman he loved the most. What would one call that?

In the first months they couldn't do anything but hurt each other. He hated to be just the copy to her, she hated him for not being the original. But somewhere between him calling her a forgettable ape, and her slapping him, something's changed. The comment 'stupid ape' morphed into a soft teasing, and her slaps became caresses. They fell in love with each other. Again.

They weren't always happy. But they were fine with that. They had each other.

OoOoO

On her third trip to the beach, seventy-five years old Rose Smith, widow of Jack N. Smith learned that the universe was a cruel place, with an incredibly sick sense of humor.

Fifty-three years, three children, ten grandchildren and a a great-granddaughter after their first kiss on the beach, they went to bed together for the last time. They'd both knew that that night was going to be the last, they'd felt it. So when the time came, they kissed each other for the last time, then waited for the inevitable. And it came... Rose felt Jack take his last breath, then felt his one, single, oh-so-human heart stop beating. She smiled then, and followed him to whatever came after the death.

The next morning, she didn't know what shocked her more. The fact that she even woke up, or that she was young again, though with a different face. In the end, she decided that the winner was the letter Jack left on his nightstand, addressed to her. The instructions in it led her to the shed –though he'd always called it his office-- behind their house, where Jack loved to tinker with the alien devices he brought home from Torchwood. On his desk there was a simple wooden box, with a familiar yellowish device inside. Jack'd stolen/borrowed/forgotten to give back Torchwoods last intact 'universe-hopper' –as he'd liked to call it--, then fixed it up, so it wouldn't damage the walls if someone used it. '_Just in case_,' said the attached note, and for a moment Rose hated the universe again for playing with her like, and Jack too, for suspecting it.

Three weeks later on the beach, Rose Smith, soon-to-be resident of her homeworld, vowed that she would never trust the gifts the universe gave her; that it's last trick would be the last she fell for. She knew it was a bitter thought, but she didn't care. Jack's death and her life had been the last straw –the universe had made her Doctor, or at least a part of him, become a human. Then it'd made Rose stop being one.

With that thought in mind, Rose activated the transporter and stepped over into a new life. Into an adventure she'd thought she would never have again.

OoOoO

The first time the woman-that-was-once-Rose visited the Crystal Palace of Avenniara III, she decided that she was a selfish woman. Not to mention weak.

Not even eight weeks have passed, and she's already broken her vow. She was willing to forget everything that happened to her, everything _he_ did to her, just to be able to travel with him again.

She took his hand, ran for her life and saved the world with him, and then, when they hugged, she felt the now almost unfamiliar hearts beat wildly against her own chest. When he asked her to travel with him, she said yes, and meant it. She was willing to share her life – and her new self- with him. She thought of it as another new beginning.

But when he asked her name, she hesitated. Telling him the truth felt like betraying the man she loved even more than the man in front of her. Rose Tyler Smith was the proud and loving wife of Jack Noble Smith, not just another companion to the last of the Time Lords; nothing in the universe was strong enough to change that.

So she took a deep breath, smiled at the Doctor and said,

"My name is River. River Song."

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don't forget to leave a review on your way out... i'm addicted to the little buggers... :o)


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